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<td class="pageTitle" nowrap="true">Role: Architect</td><td width="100%">
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<td valign="top">The Architect is responsible for defining the software architecture, which includes making the key technical decisions that constrain the overall design and implementation of the system.</td>
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<div class="sectionHeading">Relationships</div>
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<td class="sectionTableCell" valign="top"><b><span class="sectionTableCellHeading">Performs:</span></b></td><td class="sectionTableCell" valign="top"><b><span class="sectionTableCellHeading">Responsible for:</span></b></td>
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<td class="sectionTableCell" valign="top"><b><span class="sectionTableCellHeading">Additionally Performs:</span></b>
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<a href="./../../process.openup.base/capabilitypatterns/detail_system_wide_requirements_B4381DEE.html" guid="_F68foNOLEdyqlogshP8l4g">Detail System-Wide Requirements</a>
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<a href="./../../process.openup.base/capabilitypatterns/identify_and_outline_requirements_FF8708A2.html" guid="_EOm5oNOLEdyqlogshP8l4g">Identify and Outline Requirements</a>
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</td><td class="sectionTableCell" valign="top"><b><span class="sectionTableCellHeading">Modifies:</span></b></td>
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<div class="sectionHeading">Main Description</div>
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    The person in this role leads or coordinates the technical design of the system and has overall responsibility for
    facilitating the major technical decisions expressed as software architecture. This typically includes identifying and
    documenting the architecturally significant aspects of the system as views that describe requirements, design,
    implementation, and deployment.
</p>
<p>
    This role is also responsible for providing the rationale for these decisions, balancing the concerns of the various
    stakeholders, reducing technical risks, and ensuring that decisions are effectively communicated, validated, and
    followed.
</p>
<p>
    This role works closely with&nbsp;project managers&nbsp;in staffing and planning the project, because it is recommended
    that the team be organized around the architecture.
</p>
<p>
    This role also works closely with&nbsp;analysts and developers&nbsp;to make sure that the architecturally significant
    requirements are assigned to the proper components of the system.&nbsp;
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<div class="sectionHeading">Properties</div>
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<div class="sectionHeading">Staffing</div>
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<th class="sectionTableHeading" scope="row">Skills</th><td class="sectionTableCell"><p>
    Architects must be well-rounded people with maturity, vision, and a depth of experience that allows for grasping issues
    quickly and making educated, critical judgments in the absence of complete information. Specifically, the person must
    possess this combination of qualifications:
</p>
<ul>
    <li>
        <b>Experience</b> <strong>in both problem and software engineering domains</strong>, with evidence of a thorough
        understanding of the requirements to solve the problem and active participation in software development. If there
        is a team, this experience can be represented by different team members, but at least one person must be able to
        describe the overall vision for the project.
    </li>
    <li>
        <b>Leadership ability</b> to motivate and maintain momentum for the technical effort across the various teams and
        to make critical decisions under pressure, plus make those decisions stick. To be effective, this role must have
        the authority to make technical decisions. This role cannot lead by decree, but only by the consent of the rest of
        the project team. To be effective, this&nbsp;person must earn the respect of the team members, project managers,
        the customer, and the user community, as well as the management team.
    </li>
    <li>
        <b>Excellent communication</b> <strong>skills</strong> to earn trust, persuade, motivate, and mentor. The person in
        this role must have good communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
    </li>
    <li>
        <b>Critical review skills</b> to make sure that the requirements to be built are clear and consistent and to make
        sure that the developed system adheres to the architecture.&nbsp;
    </li>
    <li>
        <b>Goal-oriented and proactive</b> <strong>orientation</strong> <b>with a relentless focus on
        results.&nbsp;</b>This person is the technical driving force behind the project, not a visionary or dreamer. The
        career of a successful architect is a long series of sub-optimal decisions made in uncertainty and under pressure.
        Only those who can focus on doing what needs to be done will be successful.
    </li>
</ul>
<p>
    From an expertise standpoint, the Architect also needs to show both design and implementation abilities. However, from
    the design perspective, the effective Architect typically exhibits these traits:
</p>
<ul>
    <li>
        Tends to be a generalist, rather than a specialist, who knows many technologies at a high level rather than a few
        technologies at the detailed level
    </li>
    <li>
        Makes the broader technical decisions, thereby demonstrating broad knowledge and experience, as well as
        communication and leadership skills
    </li>
</ul></td>
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<th class="sectionTableHeading" scope="row">Assignment Approaches</th><td class="sectionTableCell"><p>
    The person in this role should be engaged in the project from start to finish.
</p>
<p>
    For smaller projects, a single person can act as both Architect and project manager. However, it is better to have
    these roles performed by different people to ensure that the pressures of one role does not cause neglect of the other
    role.&nbsp;The Architect and Project Manager&nbsp;must work together closely.
</p>
<p>
    For systems of scale, it is a common best practice to have an architecture board that is populated by the architects of
    each system, plus one or two chief architects.&nbsp; In such cases, the members of the architecture board collectively
    play the role of the Architect.
</p></td>
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<td class="copyright"><p> This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the<br />
  <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/epl-v10.php" target="_blank">Eclipse 
  Public License V1.0</a>, which accompanies this distribution. </p><p/><p> <a class="elementLink" href="./../../core.default.release_copyright.base/guidances/supportingmaterials/openup_copyright_C3031062.html" guid="_UaGfECcTEduSX6N2jUafGA">OpenUP Copyright</a></p></td>
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